Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.

Question: At the beginning, in the animation cut, Dolittle frees the gorilla from a cage, and he gives a blanket or cape-looking thing to the gorilla who seems to very much like it. What exactly is that and what does it suggest?

Bunch Son

Answer: Like any rescue victim, he was giving him comfort and aid.

Question: How accurate is the music in the game compared to the real music?

Answer: For the first couple, most songs were covers as presented onscreen with "As Made Famous By: " In later games they used the guitar master tracks from the recordings of the songs. One notable song is Anarchy in the UK by The Sex Pistols on Guitar Hero 3. The band had lost the original master recordings so they returned to the studio to record the song again just for the game.

Ssiscool

Answer: Pretty darned accurate. Granted, it's been a few years since I've played it, but pretty much the only difference I can recall is that the music in the first few "Guitar Hero" games were covers instead of the original recordings. But other than that, they sounded quite close.

TedStixon

Question: Why did Frank's co-worker (whom he sent flowers to) file a sexual harassment complaint against Frank, when she appeared interested in him?

MekuCube

Answer: It's been a while since I've seen it, but I believe it's because he went behind her back and found out her address without asking her first, which probably came across as a little creepy or stalker-ish to her, even if he didn't intend it that way. It's weird when someone you don't know finds out your address or phone number and contacts you or sends you something.

TedStixon

Question: If you beat Brain Andross on the Red Path, the "ghost" of James McCloud, Fox's father, appears and helps Fox escape the exploding base. What is the explanation for this? Is it actually the ghost of James? Was Fox hallucinating? Was James really alive the whole time? What happened exactly?

Quantom X

Answer: There isn't really an agreed answer to this, and the game leaves it purposely ambiguous. It's entirely possible that James is just a figment of Fox's imagination. It's also possible that his spirit is guiding him or that he's secretly alive. So in truth, any answer would be pure, 100% speculation.

TedStixon

Question: Is there another version of the movie? Because when I saw it on TV some scenes were cut or changed. It wasn't to remove swearing or anything, it was completely random, for example they cut Dave asking Buddy if he can eat Fiddle Faddles, and they changed Chuck's line "That's a letter I'm writing to Geraldo Rivera" to "That's a letter I'm writing to my father." This version is the version they use on the website Subzin, a website for finding movie quotes. Can someone please explain this version? What it is, how it's different, where it's used, etc.

MikeH

Answer: It's really not uncommon for movies to remove bits and pieces when broadcast on TV. Movies aren't just cut for content, they're also cut for timing. (Ex. "Shanghai Knights" used to be absolutely butchered when shown on cable - there were entire scenes missing, which created glaring mistakes.) It's also not uncommon for TV versions or foreign releases to change or remove cultural references, or use alternate takes depending on the language used. Depending on where you live, it could very easily just be that the version you're seeing is one of these alternate versions that was then also trimmed down to fit a TV timeblock.

TedStixon

Question: I've noticed that throughout the movie, the first two fingers on many character's right hand are orange. Most noticeable when Holden sees Banky at the end and in the lesbian bar when Banky is swapping stories with Alyssa. What's the significance of this?

Brad

Answer: I'm gonna be totally honest... I'm 99% sure there's no significance. In fact, I think it's just stained skin from all the smoking people do in the movie. Most people hold their cigarettes between their first two fingers. And most of the characters are depicted smoking throughout the film, which means they had to smoke a LOT during filming to maintain continuity. I used to get occasional orange (and sometimes yellow or light brown) stains on my fingers and hands when I smoked cigarettes. Especially if I smoked more than one in a short period of time and didn't wash me hands between them. So it's probably just smoking stains on the actor's fingers. In fact, I looked, and you see Banky holding a lit cigarette in his right hand and smoking during the story swapping scene you mentioned, with gives some direct evidence to my theory. (For reference, those stains can wash off with some good scrubbing).

TedStixon

Question: Why was Angier's first name of Rupert in the novel changed to Robert for the film?

Phaneron

Answer: I learned the answer to this today while reading the novel, in which Angier states that the name "Rupert" attracts amused inquisitiveness from Americans, so while traveling in the United States, he goes by Robert or Robbie.

Phaneron

Question: Near the end Frazier marches into a restaurant and delivers to the mayor a phone number related to war crimes. Presumably he is ensuring that Case gets his just desserts and is exposed/prosecuted. But why the mayor? And what has the Jodie Foster's character got to do with it? She looks so happy but also took Case's tainted money.

Giamanman

Answer: My thought: The mayor is the highest-ranking person in the city and Frazier, being a NYC cop, is openly letting him and everyone know that he (Frazier) is taking credit for uncovering Case's war crimes, leveraging it for a promotion, a commendation, and full exoneration for the missing money he was suspected of taking. He was also not going to allow the bank heist and Case's crimes to be covered up, as his superiors wanted. Frazier had earlier taped the mayor's and White's conversation when they threatened to ruin him and used that as added insurance. White is someone who, for a price, cleans up difficult situations, regardless of most circumstances, for wealthy and powerful clients, including those connected to the mayor and city politics. She is cool, dispassionate, and unflappable. Her bemused expression is mostly a "mask" to appear unaffected by Frazier confronting them. She probably enjoys seeing the mayor put in this situation, as they do not particularly like one another. She took Case's money because she considers it payment for services rendered.

raywest

Question: Why did Bruno place the medallion on the branch before leaving?

Answer: He was showing compassion. Just because he's a bad guy doesn't mean he is heartless.

Question: Keanu Reeves appeared in heavy makeup for this film in the uncredited (yet prominent) supporting role of "Ortiz the Dog Boy," and most viewers were oblivious to Reeves' involvement in the movie for many years after its release. Inasmuch as Reeves had starred twice before in comedies with Alex Winter, I'm only guessing that this film's producers didn't want a "Bill and Ted" association to complicate or misdirect the film's marketing; but why exactly did Reeves go uncredited in "Freaked"?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Honestly, I think it was just a bit of fun for Reeves. It's really not uncommon for prominent actors to do uncredited roles and cameos in films. I've seen it happen before many times. And given that the director/co-writer/co-producer is his "Bill and Ted" co-star Alex Winter, I have serious doubts they were worried about any "Bill and Ted" association. (If anything that would have helped them at the box office.) It was probably a case of Reeves doing it as a favor for a friend, and they decided to have fun with it and keep him uncredited to see if anyone would figure it out.

TedStixon

Question: What was the factory supervisor screaming at his employee?

Answer: According to IMDb, the supervisor is basically chewing him out for being lazy and sleeping on the job, and then fires him.

TedStixon

Question: Does anyone know if during filming the cargo hold scenes, did they use a real Renault car or was it just a prop made to look like one?

Answer: Online sources indicate that the 1912 Renault Type CB Coupe de Ville seen in the film was an exact replica vehicle that James Cameron had specially built. It is a copy of the one that was known to be in the Titanic's cargo hold.

raywest

Question: When the camera pans out of Rachel's house, what was the point of the skies flickering with static and the ring symbol being shown at the ending? Did Rachel and Aidan truly survive and succeed at sealing Samara out of their lives?

Answer: Yes, they succeeded. The implication seems to just be that Samara is still "out there" somewhere. It's just a way to try and end of the movie on a creepy note.

TedStixon

Question: Did Rachel really escaped back to the real world? If so, then why does the sky flicker to static and why does the ring symbol flash when the camera pans out of their house at the end? Is Rachel trapped in another realm of Samara, was Aidan still possessed or did something worse happen to the both of them through that ending? (01:45:40)

Answer: Yes, she escaped, and there's no indication whatsoever that Rachel is trapped or that Aidan is still possessed. I believe the little static/ring flash was simply to imply that Samara was still "out there" somewhere. Similar to how a lot of ghost movies end with a jump-scare of the ghost popping out, even if the heroes survived and escaped.

TedStixon

Question: How come the end credits don't mention Robert Zemeckis as the director?

Answer: They do. I just loaded the movie up on HBO Max, and it's literally the first credit to pop up in the end credits.

TedStixon

Question: At the end of the movie, after Steven tackles Jason in order to save Jessica, Jason starts brutalizing Steven. Why didn't Jason simply kill him right away? He could have quickly killed Steven in various ways, like crushing his head, punching through his body, snapping his neck etc. Why was he brutalizing him instead of trying to kill him as soon as possible?

Answer: The honest answer is "because it's better for the movie/narrative that he doesn't try to kill him right away." But I suppose you could also argue that Jason is just toying with him and prolonging his death out of fury.

TedStixon

Question: Why does Eddie's mom look the same after 27 years?

Answer: I think it's honestly just because they used the same actress. They tried to make her look a little older in the scenes set in 1990... but there's only so much you can do on a TV budget.

TedStixon

Question: Why didn't Harry Manfredini compose a soundtrack for this movie?

Answer: From what I understand, he basically did little-to-no work on "Part VII: The New Blood" due to scheduling conflicts. A majority of the score for that film was composed by someone else, although Manfredini was credited since some of his compositions and themes were used. When "Jason Takes Manhattan" rolled around, he simply wasn't asked to return, presumably because they assumed he would be too busy like he was with "Part VII." (Which makes sense, as he had four other credited projects he worked on the same year that "Jason Takes Manhattan" came out).

TedStixon

Question: Was Warren's story about general Smithers' son real, or he was merely making it up in order to provoke him?

Answer: It's honestly been up for debate ever since the film came out, and people still don't have any real consensus. So I don't necessarily think there's a "right" answer. I personally think there may be a kernel of truth to it, but that he also embellished the story greatly to provoke Smithers. (Ex. I wouldn't be surprised if the sexual assault was completely fabricated).

TedStixon

I think that this story is at least partially true because Warren knew the full name of Smithers' son.

Question: Why didn't Nica use the video cam footage to prove innocence?

Answer: Chances are Chucky was able to either hide it, destroy it or erase it. Really not that hard to do considering Chucky himself was a piece of evidence, and would probably be able to slip around unnoticed at the police station/evidence depository.

TedStixon

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